Thank you so much for the link. No wonder pop seems right for me. It's at 100% in all the places I've lived as an Adult, my Southern childhood is shrouded in the mists of time, so it can be discounted, I never drank cokes anyway.

mark no-pop-anymore-either Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...kb

Bailey wrote:Thank you so much for the link. No wonder pop seems right for me. It's at 100% in all the places I've lived as an Adult, my Southern childhood is shrouded in the mists of time, so it can be discounted, I never drank cokes anyway.

mark no-pop-anymore-either Bailey

I had a friend whose mother always asked for "pop" and it sounded strange to me. I found it interesting that according to that chart, Florida has a county for just about every choice, and yet other states are predominantly one or the other. Must be the tourists here messing things up!

In central NC where I was raised it was simply a drink [drank] as opposed to a "hard drink". A drink could be a Co-Cola, a Little Orange, a Big Orange (Neehi), a Pepsi, RC Cola (very popular down south).

I never heard "coke" until I came north--well, except in movies and on radio. I heard "pop" for the first time in Michigan and here in PA I only hear "soda".

Normally, I'd think, if someone asked for a "pop" they don't really care what kind, as a confirmed opinionated jerk, I always got my d'ruthers so I'd be so specific right down to the number and kind of ice cubes it had in with it.

mark crushed-1/4-cup-Sprite Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...kb

Dr. Goodword wrote:In central NC where I was raised it was simply a drink [drank] as opposed to a "hard drink". A drink could be a Co-Cola, a Little Orange, a Big Orange (Neehi), a Pepsi, RC Cola (very popular down south).

I never heard "coke" until I came north--well, except in movies and on radio. I heard "pop" for the first time in Michigan and here in PA I only hear "soda".

No one I know ever says "soda" unless they are talking about baking soda. I do hear "pop" on occasion, but never from a true born-and-raised Floridian. (rare though we might be) And if you ask for a "drink", you are most certainly wanting something with alcohol in it.

I moved to Eufaula, AL from Denver, CO and wasn't here long before I was admonished to modify my phrasing when requesting a soft drink. I was told that if I ordered a "soda pop" I probably wouldn't be understood if I didn't request a "coke". Since I don't drink Coke I was a bit concerned I was going to be served something undesirable. I was straightened out forthwith; it was explained that "coke" was generic for soft drinks. Well, ok.

When I was a lad growing up in SW Colorado I commonly heard soft drinks referred to as sodie-pops.

Stevie Ray, you got it!
At a restaurant, you ask for a coke, the waitress should ask you what kind, then you get specific--sounds like it didn't take long for that realization to happen!
Welcome to the South and the board!

When I worked at a restaurant that had its own brand of cola we had to tell people that we didn't have "Coke." That's a brand name, and people could actually sue if they got something they didn't order. Or at least that's the reasoning we were given. Playing it safe is good in both food service and sex, it appears.

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Whoa! While re-reading this post it just hit me. When Andy Griffith asked for "a big or'nge" in his classic monologue, What It Was Was Football, he wasn't asking for a large-sized orange soft drink; it was an orange Nehi!

Radar O'Reilly in the M*A*S*H TV series always drank Grape Nehi as I recall.

And now, looking further into the Nehi link above, I arrive at yet another "Aha!" moment! It appears that when Barbara Mandrel sang about putting peanuts in her coke (in the song I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool), she must have been talking about an RC Cola, not a Coca-Cola.

No wonder I'm not employed as a translator: too much of an idiot to pick up on all the idoms!

Oh, yeah: if you ever want to see Andy Griffith's Evil Twin, check out the movie A Face In The Crowd. Be forewarned: there are spoilers in the Wikipedia link.

Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee